Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

The first day I sat in the Foundation for orientation, ten weeks stretched out ahead of me. 

And now I am in week ten. Not to be cliche – but I blinked.

I look back over the past few months and could not be more thankful that I spent the past two and a half months with Junior Achievement. I’m not sure what I expected when I first walked into this fellowship, but this summer has been incredible.

From day one, everyone at Junior Achievement pushed me to grow as a professional. I met some incredible people with amazing stories, and was given the privilege of learning from their expertise.

I walk from Junior Achievement  a little bit better informed and with my eyes a little bit more open. This summer has been the summer of ‘community.’ With events like the Casino Night Fundraiser or sitting in on board meetings I have learned how much an entire community are reliant on one another. I’ve seen how a donor can affect an entire program, how a local business can impact a community, and with my summer project: how an education policy affects everything else around it, specifically on a non-profit level.

Thank you Junior Achievement of Central Ohio for including me for a summer and teaching me so much. Whatever my next steps are, I will take a piece of this experience with me – wherever I go.

I don’t know how many times I can sit down to almost write a blog post about Family Night at RELC.  I’ve written 3/4 of a post half a dozen times, but it never quite feels right, so I inevitably scrap it and start over.  Even these first three sentences have been edited four times.  I don’t usually have trouble finding words, which makes this struggle even more perplexing.  I want to write about the most exciting, fulfilling, overwhelming experience of my summer, but I can’t find the words to do so eloquently.

Since this is my first summer with SON Ministries, I’ve never experienced a Family Night before.  I was told that typically there are 20-30 guests and that the evening focuses on a Potluck.  We tried something a little bit different with RELC this year.

The staff knew that Family Night had never been very well attended and they, as well as I, wanted to change that.  Our thought was that if the kids were excited about the evening then the parents would be willing to show up.

We started weeks in advance, letting the kids choose what they were interested in doing for a vague Family Night sometime in the future.  We ended up with four main groups: Sports, Dance, Art and Baking.  Then things progressed.

The sports group created team names, jerseys, new soccer goals from scratch and a new dodgeball game.

The dance group choreographed two original dances to two different songs, each lasting about five minutes (one that included audience participation).

The baking group made chef hats, signs, banners, chocolate covered pretzels, cake balls, cookies, cupcakes, puppy chow and chocolate covered marshmallows (baked goods were frozen during the weeks prior and thawed the evening of the event).

The art group created a box house, a box city, paper mache disco balls, and other miscellaneous crafts.

Like I said, we wanted the kids to want to be there.  They worked for weeks to get everything ready and seemed excited, but we also really wanted to make it a special night for them, too.  So we added a raffle.

The staff created three themed raffle prizes to give away on Family Night.  The kids earned tickets during camp for good behavior and for eating the vegetable of the day (usually carrots).  They also would receive tickets at the door if they showed up to Family Night.  The prizes were as follows:

• Sports and Music: Soccer Ball, Basketball, 2x$10 iTunes gift cards, sports water bottle, OSU drawstring bag
• Art: Various craft supplies including colored pencils, markers, crayons, modeling clay, paints, carrying case, $20 Michael’s gift card, coloring books and painting books.
• Baking: Various baking supplies including mixing bowls, measuring cups, measuring spoons and cake mixes

So the stage was set.  We sent home RSVP forms with the kids the week prior to the big event and were already surprised at the numbers we were getting back.  Surely not every person that claimed to be attending would actually show, right?

I’ve never been so happy to be so wrong.  It was a great turn out. Just me, the staff, and over 150 guests.

150 guests!?

This is where I start to struggle with words.  I was so overwhelmed by how many people were in attendance, how happy the kids were to be there, how well behaved they were and how much fun everybody was having that I spent the remainder of the evening walking around with a stunned smile on my face (a stubborn smile that wouldn’t come off for days afterward).  I watched as the baking group ran a bake sale, the dancers blew everybody away with their choreography, sports group battled for soccer supremacy and showed off their new dodgeball game and the art group toured box city.

I realize now that there aren’t any words I can put down that would accurately portray how amazing this night was, so let me give you the cliff notes.

The kids dreamed it, the kids did it, the community watched, and I was amazed.

It’s hard to believe that my time at LifeCare Alliance is about to come to a close. I’ve busily spent the week finishing up my remaining projects and preparing for my final presentation at The Columbus Foundation.

I’ve been working to draft a fishing letter to pet food retailers in hopes of receiving donations of pet food and/or supplies. I’ve also written a similar letter to veterinary offices explaining LifeCare’s procedure of assisting clients with vet bills. Because most vet offices require payment up front, some practices have been weary to accept pre-approval as a place holder. After several drafts and a quick self-tutorial in Mail Merge, over 200 letters were finally mailed. Responses have started to come in this week, from both retailers and vet offices, and seeing the results of my hard work has been very rewarding.

Fishing letters wait to be mailed

I have learned a lot during my summer with LifeCare, both in and out of the office. LifeCare Alliance has taught me a great deal about the needs of the Columbus community and the inner workings of a large non-profit agency. The staff has shown me the importance of thorough communication, teamwork, and the fun of staff lunches around Columbus. Columbus rush hour has taught me patience, and the Columbus Clippers and the Columbus Crew have shown me that there is team spirit to be found outside of Ohio Stadium.  It was an unforgettable summer, and I am so grateful to The Columbus Foundation and LifeCare Alliance for giving me this incredible opportunity.

LifeCare Alliance’s founder, Catherine Nelson Black, began the agency in 1898 thereby creating the first in-home health agency and Ohio’s first Visiting Nurse Association. Her motto was, “Take care of those no one else pays any attention to.” For the past 115 years, volunteers, donors, and staff members have dedicated themselves to caring for individuals that may have otherwise been overlooked. Some might wonder, after all this time? After all this time there are people willing to continually give their time, money, and resources to ensure that others receive what they need to live comfortably? The answer, as I have learned this summer, is quite simple. Always.

And so we’ve (almost) come to the end of the Fellowship! As Friday draws closer, it seems like there are more and more things to do and learn at the OEC. Last week was full of events both fun and professional. On Tuesday (8/6) a whole fleet of other interns and myself attended “A Dialogue on Climate Impacts and Opportunities in Ohio” panel at the Athletic Club downtown. This event was quite prestigious (former governor Ted Strickland gave opening remarks) and drew from a wide base of environmental advocates, including the Christian-based Interfaith Power & Light and the militarily minded Truman National Security Project. This event opened my eyes to how many lenses through which climate change can be viewed and combated, and I got to spend time with the OEC’s great intern family while doing so!

     We also got to spend time together last Friday when the OEC very kindly hosted an office potluck to commemorate the end of the summer intern season. Although rain drove us inside, that didn’t stop some from playing a little bocce in the hallway! Everyone had a great time, although it was bittersweet to say goodbye to some good friends I’ve made over the last 8 weeks.

     When I reflect on my time spent at the OEC this summer, I can’t believe how much I’ve learned in such a short time. Although my projects were largely administrative in nature, they also required a vast amount of research into environmental practices, energies, and projects in order for me to fully grasp the importance of my work, and to learn the industry lingo! Now, I can tell a REC from a LEED certification, I know where the Public Utilities and Ohio Air Quality Development Authority offices are, and I could recommend the best real estate in Ohio for a solar panel production facility. And that’s just scratching the surface! I have always considered myself an environmentally conscious person, and now I have an intimate knowledge of what Ohio is doing as a state to help our environment – and let me tell you, it’s varied, complicated, and wonderful. In addition to expanding my practical knowledge base, working at the OEC has allowed me to meet and work alongside some of the most dedicated, brilliant environmental minds in the state. I will be sad to leave my little desk in the OEC office, but I will certainly be taking fond memories with me.

Think about it. Despite all of the organizing, categorizing, and digitizing that I have done with CELC this summer, I have been working primarily with their tangible, paper-bound materials. Now think about the past 13 years. Everything that we do, more or less, is stored on computers. And I only barely scraped the surface of already-digitized documents in terms of the organizing and categorizing components. Just because digital documents take up less physical space is not a reason not to be diligent about their preservation. Moving forward, CELC still must be intentional in continuing to preserve their history and legacy in the Columbus community, especially since so much of this history is already in a digital format.

In this last week, I am asking myself questions such as, “How do I leave behind a system in which new historical items may be slotted into an existing organizational structure? And what is going to be most effective for CELC in the future?” These are questions with no simple answers. Preparing for the history of the future is no easy undertaking.

Overall, though, CELC now has digitized historical records, including everything from photos to articles of incorporation to board of trustees rosters, not to mention the VHS tapes, slides, and award plaques. I can’t be sure that I found everything (having found this week a brochure I hadn’t seen before in amongst a tub of face paint). In digitizing all of these items, CELC’s history is more accessible and can also be more effectively leveraged in marketing and fundraising campaigns, as well as grant applications. Bringing CELC’s history into the 21st century demonstrates the importance of learning from, reflecting on, and appreciating the past.

Preparing for the history of the future has already begun. Though all of this started as a treasure hunt without a map, CELC now has a digital map to locate and explore its previously hidden historical treasures.

Week nine of the fellowship was spent mainly distributing surveys at Lutheran Social Services, Hilltop YMCA, and Gladden Food Pantry. I enjoyed going out and meeting people living on the west side. It was a good experience for an MSW student. The residents on this side of city are pretty poor and underserved. Some individuals were completely open with me about sharing personal details of their life once they discovered I was an MSW student. The individuals visiting Lutheran Social Services were pretty open to completing a survey, and their set-up was perfect for me to have a captive audience to present my survey to. Next I went to the Hilltop YMCA to observe one of our programs called Creative Connections, and to survey parents dropping their children off at the program. That night we ended up not having a lot of families stop by, and Y was having a pretty slow night so I wasn’t able to complete many surveys. Finally I went to Gladden Food Pantry to pass out surveys which was a bit of an adventure. Residents in Franklinton have different attitudes, and I pretty much had to sell the surveys to them. This pantry operates like an assembly line so I had stay on my toes. Some people rushed so quickly by me I never had a chance to even stop them to ask if they wouldn’t mind filling out a survey for us. All in all I had 33 completed surveys which was a little over half of what I had hoped to receive. Of course before I arrived they had 16 completed surveys so I doubled the response rate. If we had decided to continue distributing the surveys sooner than we had I am confident we would have a much higher response rate. I hope the next intern continues with collecting surveys, because I found some pretty good places to distribute them.

The rest of my week was spent making an excel sheet to enter the survey data to analyze, finalizing notes for the next intern, and printing off as much information to organize into folders for the next intern as I possibly can. I am confident the next intern will be left with more information, and a better idea of what’s going on than what I feel I had. I pretty much had a folder with flyers from other organizations, handouts from other organization, copies of the 16 completed surveys, and a few piece of a paper with handwritten notes. During my fellowship I had to spend many hours learning about the culture, demographics, just exactly what was done before me, and did we hope to accomplish. This is why I am working so hard to make the next intern’s job a little easier. I’m leaving them stacks of emails I sent, several pages of notes on what was done, information on demographics, culture, excel sheet for proposed budgets for west side fall programming, survey results, completed surveys organized into labeled envelopes, and recommendations for how they should move forward.

Last week was an extremely busy week for me at ETSS Summer Camp. Both sites were planning an end-of-summer celebration and needed to prepare foods and supplies for the parties. Over the at East site, the kids and I worked on preparing for the celebration by cooking some of the recipes we made during camp this summer. All three age groups were able to help prepare for the party. The littlest group, ages 5-7 cut the tomatoes and cilantro for our rice and bean salad. The middle group, ages 8-10 cut the tomatoes, onions, and cilantro for our tomato salsa. The oldest group, ages 11-13 cut the cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions, parsley, and basil (from our garden!) for our pasta salad. They worked really hard to get all of the dishes ready so that we could share the recipes with their families. 

The party went well and the families enjoyed the food we made! I printed out the recipes for each dish for the kids to take home, and the parents were very excited about it!

It has been a great summer, and I definitely learned a lot working at ETSS. I did not know that there was such a large Ethiopian population here in Columbus! It’s great to be able to learn new cultures and learn that there is so much more to Columbus. From my Ethiopian camper from the East site, I learned that there is a great Ethiopian restaurant in Whitehall called Lalibela Bar. I can’t wait to try it, because I sure do love injera! 

I also learned that these kids love to try new foods! They are interested in the subject of food and nutrition, and are eager to learn more. Teaching these kids has made me more confident about my future career goal as a health educator. I want to share my love of food and eating healthy to all kids and families.

There was a girl in my East site that made me so proud! She really enjoyed my nutrition class this summer and made some changes in the way she chose foods to buy at the grocery store. Her parents told me that she would tell them, “choose the whole grains” and “buy this, our teacher said this was healthy for us!” From the gardening lessons to nutrition classes, she always participated and was excited for the next class with me! I hope she continues to eat healthy!

The kids at ETSS Summer Camp have been very fortunate to be able to try so many different recipes this summer. This week, they made pasta salad as well as a Tofu Maple Syrup Dip.

The week began with the kids chopping up cucumbers and tomatoes for the pasta salad. I cooked whole grain pasta the weekend before to have the pasta ready for the kids. I always explain to the kids the importance of eating whole grains- they taste just as good as the regular “white” pasta/rice, but has SO MUCH more nutrients! The white rice/pasta removes most of the nutrients, so you’re left with just carbohydrates. Why not make the change to whole grains, a simple step to a healthier diet! To the whole grain pasta, the kids added their cucumbers and tomatoes. We also added some great northern beans for protein, and whipped up our very own dressing. The dressing is so simple to make and a healthier alternative to the dressings we normally buy at the grocery store. The dressing we made consists of olive oil, garlic powder, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. The kids had fun shaking up the container and then pouring it over the delicious pasta salad. It was great to see the kids trying the whole grain pasta, and even better to hear that they LIKED the whole grain pasta! When you mix up the whole grain pasta with delicious veggies and homemade dressing, you won’t be able to taste any difference! To pair with the pasta salad, I brought along the book Strega Nona to read to the kids. Most of the kids were familiar with the story but still enjoyed listening to the story once more.

After the pasta salad, the next cooking lesson was making the Tofu Maple Syrup Dip. At the grocery store, there are always tubs of caramel or artificial cream in the fruit section. The tofu maple syrup dip is a healthier alternative to these when we want to dip our fruits into something delicious and sweet. I brought my food processor along with me, and we combined the soft tofu, maple syrup, and cinnamon. The kids sampled the dip with sliced apples and strawberries. Most of the kids weren’t aware of how maple syrup was made, so I brought a picture book to read to them about how we make maple syrup. Making maple syrup is a long process; no wonder it’s expensive!

At it’s core, one might say that CELC’s mission goes beyond providing the highest quality early childhood education available. It provides a crucial service that works not only to alleviate poverty in our communities, but also to break the cycle of poverty in which so many families find themselves trapped. By making it possible for parents to work or attend school, they indirectly improve families’ socioeconomic situations.

Importantly for CELC, 125 years with a mission to provide early learning experiences as a means of improving families’ lives means that they have a lot of information about the transformation of early childhood education into its current form. Now the challenge is to craft a narrative that resonates with a variety of audiences, that serves as a testament to the the ways in which early childhood learning has changed and the ways in which it remains the same.

This week, I have been using all of the historical materials that I have scanned, photographed, and dissected over the past weeks to connect CELC’s past to its present and future. I’m no graphic designer or video editor, so I’ve had my fair share of hours spent learning how to add audio to PowerPoint (so cool that it is a feature now!). And yes, I’m using PowerPoint for all of these ventures because video software is beyond me, at least in my current time frame.

To transform these disparate objects into a useful document that brings together the past and the present has been rather exciting. I have particularly been struck by how forward thinking CELC has been over the course of its many names. At one point, as a result of searching for newspaper articles, I counted 8 different variations under which CELC has been known. While that can make it complicated to explain historical situations, having to identify which location under which name, it enriches CELC’s all-encompassing history that much more. Over the next week, I’ll continue to work to bring CELC’s history into its present initiatives.

New Desks Being Moved into a 7th grade Classroom

This past week at CCA has been very eventful! Last Saturday was our final orientation session and we had a great turn out. Nearly all of the 36 families scheduled were in attendance, which is great. We had several less faculty and staff assisting with Saturday’s orientation, but it still went smoothly. And now it is definitely a relief to have both orientations behind us.

In addition to orientation, home visits are conducted for all new students. Ms. Anstaett, West’s School Director and Mr. McClellan, West’s Dean of Students, conduct the visits as another form of introduction to CCA. One of my roles in the fellowship is to schedule and reschedule (if necessary) home visits. Right now, we have a total of 90 new students and have completed 56 home visits (62%), have 9 scheduled and 25 to still be conducted. This leaves us in a great position for home visits, especially because there will be more than 75% completed by the start of school.  

And yet again, back-to-school time is fast upon us, with less than 2 weeks before CCA’s first day on August 21^st! CCA-West has seen great progress in these past few weeks in regards to both recruitment and readiness of the building. Considering that there are just 12 days until the start of the school year there is still a significant amount of work to be done. Luckily today the student desks were delivered. and now the classrooms are really starting to look like the real deal. It has been a great experience to see how far the building has come since we first moved in in early July. Are recruitment numbers are looking great and we will hopefully enroll a few more students before my time here ends. I can’t believe there is only one week left of the fellowship!

Until next week…

Nikki